TEHRAN – On Saturday, a group of Iranian drivers started a family car rally in the northern province of Gilan to mark the Persian Gulf National Day, which is celebrated annually on April 30, IRNA reported. 

Organized by the Touring and Automobile Club of Iran, the rally will continue in several Iranian provinces including Qazvin, Alborz, Isfahan, Fars, and Hormozgan. 

The participants need to reach the Persian Gulf island of Kish in southern Iran by Thursday, to attend the closing ceremony there, the report added. 

Over the past couple of decades, the coral Kish Island has become a beach resort where visitors can swim, shop, and sample a laid-back and relatively liberated local lifestyle. It is home to free-trade-zone status, with ever-growing hotels, shopping centers, apartment blocks, and retail complexes.

The Persian Gulf is a shallow, epi-continental sea approximately 1,000 km long and 200-350 km wide, narrowing to about 60 km across the Straits of Hormuz. According to Encyclopedia Iranica, to date, no Neolithic remains have been found anywhere along the Persian Gulf coast of Iran. The earliest archaeological remains yet identified on the coast of Iran consist of sherds of Mesopotamian Ubaid type picked up by M. E. Prickett and A. Williamson on the surface of Halilah, a prehistoric site on the Bushehr peninsula.

The Persian Gulf has always been a source of pride and honor for Iranians. For thousands of years, the people of Iran have lived alongside the Persian Gulf and have enjoyed its endless benefits.

In addition to having vast resources of energy and economic significance, the Persian Gulf has an ancient and unique history and culture.

According to the book “Documents on the Persian Gulf's Name, the Eternal Heritage of Ancient Time,” the term, the Persian Gulf and its equivalents have been used continuously since earlier than 400 BC in all languages, especially in the Arabic language.

On almost all maps printed before 1960, and in most modern international treaties, documents, and maps, this body of water is known by the name "Persian Gulf."

ABU/AM